continues progress

Natalie continues to amaze her family, friends, and therapists with her improvements in all areas of recovery.

She is actually camping this weekend with Becca, Kyle, Al, and Ashley (Kyle's girlfriend). She was excited to be going away and shopped with Becca and Kyle for supplies at the store. I suspect she is glad to be away from her parents for the first time in almost a year!

We have just had a great visit from Marc's parents, his brother Guy, and wife Terri from England. They were here for 10 days and attended therapy sessions with Nat and were amazed at her strength and drive to improve. Natalie even read in church on the weekend they were here and danced to a band at one of the restaurants we were at. Grandma commented as they were leaving that Nat had improved since the begining of their stay.

Natalie continues with her therapy three times a week at St. Cammillus, in Syracuse. The big difference in her routine is now, whoever drives her to therapy simply sees her to the gym and leaves. Nat is working with her therapists to gain 100% independance. She works on daily living skills, (including baking, which we all get to sample!) problem solving and of course physical therapy.

Natalie still has a passion for running, and in speech therapy has devised a work out schedule and training program for our neighbor Stacey to train and run a 5K. Nat will be her trainer and track her progress on the computer to share with her speech therapist.

Physical therapy is where Nat's driven, determined personality shines. she is strengthening her core muscles, as well as her ankles, and is working on her gait. She rarely uses her chair now prefering to walk. Becca and I once again feel very short around Nat as her posture is so good she towers over us once again.

At the moment every day seems to bring another achievement in Nat's progress. As you all know she is an amazing young lady that has endured unimaginable pain and suffering. As we approach the one year mark I can honestly say "our Natalie" has achieved more than our family could have ever hoped or dreamed of.

Once again thank you for your continued support for Natalie and our family.
Tina (Mum)